The IRS Is Out To Audit You If You're Earning $1 Million Or More

The Internal Revenue Service has revealed that it audited 12.5
percent of taxpayers earning $1 million or more in fiscal 2011,
up from 8 percent in 2010 and 6 percent in 2009, the
Los Angeles Times reported. That’s the highest-ever audit
rate for millionaires.

Taxpayers earning $200,000 or more also
attracted a smidge more attention from the IRS, which audited 4
percent of them, up from 3 percent in 2010, according to the LA
Times. But the audit rate of earners who made less than $200,000
in income alone was the same as it’s been for the past five years
– 1 percent.

In recent weeks, President Barack Obama and congressional
Democrats have sought to boost taxes on the wealthy as a way to
pay for jobs programs, a theme they are expected to continue in
this presidential and congressional election year. IRS
spokeswoman Michelle Eldridge said the growing portion of
millionaire earners’ returns audited is not related to
politics.

Steven Miller, deputy IRS commissioner for services and
enforcement, told Bloomberg News that the increased audits on the
biggest earners were the result of the agency’s new focus on
income held outside the US. “We have done a lot of work in the
offshore area,” Miller said.

Miller also said the high audit rate on the nation’s top earners
demonstrated that tax laws are applied fairly. “That has been
something we’ve concentrated on to assure that there’s equity in
the system, to assure that those at the lower end of the spectrum
know that those at the higher end of the spectrum are subject to
the same rules and enforcement as everyone else,” he told
the Associated Press.

Through its enforcement efforts, the IRS collected an additional
$55.2 billion from taxpayers last year, the LA Times reported.